For the follow-up to the previous year's debut
Flop and the Fall of the Mopsqueezer!, Seattle's
Flop enlists sensational '70s punk-era producer
Martin Rushent -- who did 99 percent of
Buzzcocks' original works, as well as early
Stranglers,
999,
Generation X, and so on -- for what seems like a perfect marriage. But, in fact,
Kurt Bloch's work on the first album sounds heavier. Without emasculating them, it seems
Rushent has polished up the rougher surfaces and given the vocals more prominence in the mix (a common major-label malady, though it's not so bad here), making them seem bigger (more
Pistols-ish in places) and more friendly if less mean. So it takes a few plays to get used to the subtle change, but it's worth it. Guitarist/leader and onetime
Fastbacks drummer
Rusty Willoughby's singing on the more amiable pop tunes makes
Flop sound like a squeaky-clean cross between
the Records,
Cheap Trick, and
the Bay City Rollers, crossing this otherwise punk-oriented, two-guitar barrage into more maudlin power pop territory (and on the more sassy numbers such as "En Route to the Unified Field Theory" and "A Fixed Point," they flirt with glam-ish camp); even then it's thick and zesty, and the band can't help but blasting out the next track. Each song takes pains to depart from its predecessor, altering the tempos, rhythms, swings, and feels (hooray for the lost art of variety!). While the late-'70s
Buzzcocks remain the ultimate pairing of punk's wall-of-guitar onslaught and unbelievably catchy hooks, this hookup of their old producer and these Pac Northwest mavericks "produces" favorable results. ~ Jack Rabid